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DinaAbramowicz

Renowned for her remarkable skills as a reference librarian, Dina Abramowicz built an impressive library collection at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, where she worked since 1947. Her scholarship and expertise, praised by readers and writers alike, were celebrated by both library and cultural achievement awards.

Born in Vilna, Russia (today Lithuania), on May 8, 1909, Abramowicz was raised in a culturally rich, multilingual home. Her father, Hirsh Abramowicz, was an educator, Yiddish author, and member of the Jewish Labor Bund. Her mother, Anna (Schreiber) Abramowicz, came from a prominent family of worldly maskilim. Abramowicz attended Yiddish and Polish gymnasia in Vilna, and received an M.A. in humanities (philosophy, Polish literature) from Stefan Batory University (1936). She was assistant to the head librarian of the [Jewish] Central Children’s Library of Vilna (1939–1941), and worked in the Vilna Ghetto Library during the Nazi occupation (1941–1943). After the ghetto was liquidated, she escaped from a deportation train and served with a Jewish partisan unit until liberation in 1944. Her mother perished at Treblinka in 1943; her younger sister survived the war in France, and her father was already on a visit to the United States in the summer of 1939.

In 1946, when Abramowicz came to the United States, she resumed her career as a librarian, first at Smith College from 1946 to 1947 and subsequently at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. In 1953, she received an M.S. from the Columbia University School of Library Service. Her positions in the YIVO library included assistant librarian (1947–1962), head librarian (1962–1987), and reference librarian (1987–2000). Abramowicz’s areas of expertise included Yiddish literature (including literature in English translation and children’s literature), modern Eastern European Jewish history and culture, and the Nazi Holocaust. She published numerous studies, bibliographies, book reviews, and topical articles.

During her tenure at YIVO, she greatly expanded the library’s collection, adding books and journals in many languages. Her professional memberships included the American Library Association, the Association for Jewish Studies, and the Association of Jewish Libraries.

In recognition of her outstanding ability to assist readers—whether in person, over the phone, or by mail, Abramowicz was awarded the Dr. Chaim Zhitlowsky Prize (Yiddisher Kultur Farband, 1987), the Dr. Berl Frimer Prize for Cultural Achievement (Congress for Jewish Culture, 1992), and the Leonard Wertheimer Multicultural Public Library Service Award (Public Library Association of the American Library Association, 1994).

Her positions in the YIVO included assistant librarian (1947–1962) and head librarian (1962–1987). She resigned her position as head librarian in 1987 and assumed the title of reference librarian, serving in that capacity until her death in April 2000.